B/A: Pre-Litigation Mediation & Litigation Consulting is a relatively new business venture for you. Give us a little background.

    Pre-Litigation Mediation is a new and unique business service to everyone, especially those involved in the construction industry!  As a business owner, which included a commercial construction enterprise, I came to realize that rarely is everything black and white, and win-win situations are always the goal to every transaction for my employees and me.  I have a law degree from the University of Denver School of Law and a Master’s Degree in Counseling Psychology from Western Michigan University.  I have worked in the field of labor and employee relations for two Fortune 500 companies where I negotiated union contracts, presented arbitrations on behalf of management and trained managers in law, communications and ethics in dealing with employees.  I have over 30 years experience in communications and getting people to talk to each other. 

B/A: What motivated you to start this business and how did you do it??

     I started the business at the suggestion of a client.  A couple of years ago I was doing a consulting project in one of my client’s offices and he overheard a conversation I was having with a customer of his regarding a past due invoice.  David, who was then going through a divorce himself, said to me”…you are 10 times better than the mediator that’s working with our lawyers. Have you ever given thought to doing mediation work?”  From that suggestion I researched the practice of mediation, legal requirements and competition in the Southwest Michigan market.

    Early in building my practice, Attorney Shaun Willis of Willis & Willis P.C. (construction law experts), proved to be an invaluable resource. Dale Shugars and the Home Builders Association of Greater Kalamazoo helped me take my practice to the next level and my relationship with HBAGK has been, like the Master Card commercials,  “priceless.”  I have since developed a relationship with the Michigan Association of Home Builders, who has published some of my articles on “Avoiding Litigation.”  Those relationships helped me discover and cultivate the market for Pre-Litigation Mediation.

B/A: What types of services do you offer the folks in the building industry?

    The majority of my practice is devoted to pre-litigation mediation.  Most of the projects I mediate do not have a dollar value that would warrant the expense of protracted litigation, yet require a fair and legal result. 

   I also conduct arbitrations as the arbitrator.  I regularly consult with lawyers and parties engaged in construction litigation and I offer consulting services for parties wishing to enter into a contract in a construction project.

   In addition to construction pre-litigation disputes involving homeowners, contractors and sub-contractors, I work with business partners, couples looking to dissolve their marriages amicably, family disputes and employer/employee disputes.

B/A: How does mediation work and who benefits?

     Once disputing parties understand the nature and scope of my service they are quick to invite me to help them resolve their dispute through communication, and in the process save them thousands of dollars in legal fees.  Often times I go to job sites, homes, contractors’ offices or coffee shops to do fact finding, review contracts and any other written communications that help me to help the parties wade through the quagmire in which they seem to have become bogged down.

    Generally, I schedule meetings whereby each of the parties can express their facts and feelings to the other in a non-confrontational manner.  I then separate the parties and help them negotiate to a win-win resolution.  Sometimes, after I have met the parties and the entire fact finding is done, I am able to resolve the dispute through a series of phone calls. Regardless of the methodology, I always invite both parties to contact their lawyers and get him or her involved if either party feels more comfortable with legal representation.

     Who benefits? – My role is really one of support of the legal system and the disputing parties’ rights.  At the end of the day this is my challenge – helping homeowners, project owners, contractors and construction professionals get on with their business and personal lives as stress free as possible.

B/A: If someone were starting out in a business like yours today, what advice would you give?

     When asked this question I share this – go out and get 30 + years experience in a number of different business environments, get a law degree, learn how to read people,  take some lumps in business, take a ”perseverance and entrepreneur” combo-pill, understand sales and marketing and learn how to take risks. 

B/A: What are your goals for the next few years?

     Become recognized as the Pre-Litigation resource in Southwest Michigan and beyond for an efficient, cost-effective and honest way to resolve disputes without going to the courthouse.  I would love to have my son involved as a business partner someday so that I can grow older and then old with him nearby.  James II presently lives in Charlotte, North Carolina.

B/A: What’s the most important thing you’ve learned in your work life?

     It’s very important to be honest with people, even if being honest does not serve your best interest in the resolution of the dispute.

B/A: If you weren’t a mediator, what might you do for a living?

     I would love to own and operate a restaurant in Granada, Nicaragua, for six months each year.  I know where one’s for sale just down the street from Hotel Granada.  The other six months of the year I’d love to do fund raising for Vision Outreach International.

B/A: What’s one thing most people don’t know about you?

    I am the volunteer Chief Executive Officer of Vision Outreach International (www.visionoutreach.org).  VOI is a nonprofit organization that was formed by a group of ophthalmologists in St. Joseph, Michigan, and our mission is to give the gift of sight to the blind poor.  I recently participated in a 10- day medical mission whereby our medical team gave the gift of sight to the blind poor of Nicaragua by performing 240 cataract surgeries.  Everyone in America should be so lucky to experience the grateful hugs and smiles from people who, just days before, hadn’t seen the faces of their children and grandchildren for many years.

B/A: How do you unwind? What do you do for fun?

     In recent years I have become an avid reader, I have discovered fly fishing in the winter for steelhead in the Rogue River near Rockford, Michigan, I make a great apple pie, I love a good blues concert, Jimmy Buffet once each year is the best and how could you not like the Rocky Mountains.